Mrs Williams said she would be delighted but insisted that each should pay for their own meal. ‘Just because I sat myself down next to you doesn’t give me the right to expect you to pay for my lunch,’ she said. ‘But I do hate eating alone in a café, so if you’re sure you don’t mind I’ll come with you to the Seagull. Only – do you mean to go on the beach during the course of the afternoon? If so, we might take a walk along the sands together. I’d enjoy it far more with a companion and I dare say you might feel the same.’ Albert agreed that he would and presently the pair found themselves descending from the bus on the crowded promenade and promising the driver that they would congregate beside the clock tower on the prom by six o’clock at the latest.

‘’Cos I’m warnin’ you, I’ll leave this here resort at a minute past six and if you’re left behind that’ll be your blame,’ the driver said jovially. ‘Have a good time, ladies and gents, and don’t forget to bring me back a stick of rock wi’ Rhyl written right the way through it.’

The passengers began to move away, eager to explore the delights of the seaside town, and Albert offered his arm to Mrs Williams. He found, as they walked along the prom, that he felt proud to be with such an attractive and well-dressed woman. Mrs Williams was only an inch or two shorter than Albert and had, besides a great deal of curling white hair, a pair of big blue eyes, a straight little nose and a soft pink mouth. She wore a blue cotton dress which exactly matched her eyes and a pair of comfortable white sandals, because, as she had already told him, she too was a keen walker and knew that fashionable shoes would soon ruin her day. Despite the earliness of the hour the beach was already crowded and Albert pointed this out, saying that, had she indeed brought sandwiches, she would have been hard pressed to find a secluded spot to eat them.

Mrs Williams agreed, and presently suggested that they might walk along the beach now, since the tide was going out and people were starting to leave in search of lunch. Albert agreed and courteously turned his back whilst his companion hitched up her skirt, removed her sandals and trotted joyfully into the little white-topped waves.

‘It’s a good thing my granddaughter can’t see me now; she’d say I was entering my second childhood,’ Mrs Williams said. She gave a squeak and pointed at the water through which she was wading. ‘Look at that shell! Can you reach it without getting too wet?’

‘I can if you’ll hold my jacket,’ Albert said. He had shed his jacket along with all his formality, and felt he had known Mrs Williams for years. But it wasn’t until they were seated opposite one another in the Seagull café, having been lucky enough to find a table for two, that Albert discovered he had met Tess’s grandmother at long last.